Bear makes midnight raid on bird feeders in Killingly

Wednesday

Jun 6, 2012 at 12:01 AMJun 6, 2012 at 6:03 AM

A Griffiths Road couple, awakened at about midnight by a loud cracking sound coming from their backyard, said they were stunned when they spotted the source of the noise: A large black bear that was happily feasting on the contents of their bird feeders.

DON BOND

A Griffiths Road couple, awakened at about midnight by a loud cracking sound coming from their backyard, said they were stunned when they spotted the source of the noise: A large black bear that was happily feasting on the contents of their bird feeders.

“When I first heard the crash, I thought it might have been a raccoon that got into the feeders,” Mike Montville, 37, of 30 Griffiths Road, said Tuesday. “But then I looked out and said to my wife, ‘Holy cow, it’s a bear!’ ”

The bear had pulled over a large, 7-foot-high solid iron post that held a tube feeder and a box feeder and was leisurely feeding on the bird seed as Montville and his wife, Jaime, watched from the safety of their house.

“The bear lay down on its stomach and was just licking up the bird seed,” Montville said. “Finally, it just stood up and wandered off into the woods.”

Montville said his wife discouraged him from trying to take photos of the bear for fear of spooking or agitating the animal. Montville said he called state police, but the bear had disappeared by the time troopers from the Danielson barracks arrived.

He said he also spoke to a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection biologist, who suggested he bang kitchen pans together to make a loud noise that should frighten off the bear if it returns.

Recent sighting

The bear that fed on the Montville’s bird feeders was the second bear sighting in Killingly in less than a week.

A large black bear, estimated to weigh close to 200 pounds, was tranquilized and removed by DEEP conservation officers Thursday night after it climbed a tree in the back yard of a home on Dyer Street in Danielson. That bear had been sighted several times earlier in the day in the yards of homes on South, South Main and Tiffany streets in Brooklyn before it crossed the Quinebaug River and Route 6 to Danielson.

The bear was released back into the wild in a remote area near the Massachusetts border once it regained consciousness, according to DEEP officers.

Montville said he suspects the bear in his yard may be the same one, but DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain said there’s no way of knowing for certain.

Schain said the bear from last week’s incident would have been tagged by the DEEP to better help track its whereabouts.

“The bear population in Connecticut is growing rapidly, and it’s not inconceivable there could be more than one bear in that area,” Schain said.

Griffiths Road is located off Route 6, running between Dark Lantern Hill Road and Brickyard Road, only a short distance from the Rhode Island border and a few miles east of Danielson. Killingly’s recycling center and its former town landfill are nearby.

Montville said he had planned to camp out in his backyard with his children in an effort to expose them to camping, but may put that off for a while. He said he and his wife had not told the youngsters, Addison, 5, and Austin, 2, about the bear’s visit.